Monday, June 14, 2010

The Ten Spot

Okay, I admit freely that I am totally robbing this idea from a fellow blogger. Pam over at Sidewalk Shoes has been sharing a regular series on wine called “Weekend Wine Reviews”, and I love it! Since I have some friends who are starting to get interested in wine and regularly ask my opinion on their choices, I’ve decided to start sharing what I have found here as well.

One very important thing you should know about me as a wine drinker is this. I’m cheap. I would be hard pressed to pay more than ten dollars for a bottle of wine, and if I can find one for half that price that I enjoy, well, even better.

Hence the name of this post, The Ten Spot, as I will be trying out new wines that are ten dollars or less per bottle and reviewing them here. The good, the bad, and yes, also the nasty.

I am by no means claiming to be an expert in all things wine, I just know what I like and I don’t think you should have to spend a fortune on a bottle to be able to enjoy wine.

I don’t have a set schedule for this post, you will just see it appear randomly, whenever I find something I think is worthy of sharing.

Like today!

Jam Jar Sweet Shiraz $9.99I’ve been wanting to try this one since it came out as a special in my local liquor store newsletter a few weeks ago. One of my book club friends has a preference for sweet wines and since I prefer dry, we don’t usually enjoy the same wines. The description of this wine intrigued me since a Shiraz is not a sweet wine, but this one was described as “like drinking a jar of jam”.

And the man at the store who told me that (must be popular because he walked right up to the bottle on the shelf when I asked for it) was absolutely right. The first glass was like drinking boozy, liquefied blackberry jam. Sweet, and almost viscous on the tongue. The second glass brought out more of the dryness of the shiraz that I am familiar with. It was a very intense wine, and for the heat of summer, I can see it being very tasty as a spritzer. I’ll be getting another bottle for our next book club meeting.

Be on the lookout for more editions of The Ten Spot as I explore new wines in my small town!

3 comments:

I've never really been fond of sweet wine before. Saturday we celebrated one of my best friend's 50th @ a villa on a local winery's property. One of the wines they served was a hefeweizen and wine combo. It sounded like a bad idea but it was a very sweet tasting combo of the two flavors. Now I think I might be up to trying Jam Jar Shiraz. Thanks for the tip. Hopefully my local BevMo can order it :-)